The Declaration of Independence. It’s Not What You Think.

Commentary

Published July 3, 2016

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”

Most Americans, and probably a good number of global citizens, can quote the above section of the Declaration of Independence. But I doubt many can recall much of what comes after that or the historical context from which it was written.

In 1763, King George of England issued the Proclamation of 1763. In this proclamation, he drew a line down the Appalachian Mountains and essentially told the colonies that they no longer had the right of discovery of the empty (Indian) lands west of the Appalachia. That right was now reserved solely for the crown. This upset the colonists, so a few years later they wrote a letter of protest. In their letter, they accused the king of “raising the conditions of new appropriations of land.” They went on in their letter to declare that “he (the King) has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages…”

They signed their letter July 4, 1776.

Yes, believe it or not, a mere 30 lines beneath the statement “All men are created equal,” the Declaration of Independence refers to Natives as “merciless Indian Savages.” Making it abundantly clear that the only reason the founding fathers used the inclusive language “all men” is because they had a very narrow definition of who was and who was not human.

According the Declaration of Independence, Natives are dehumanized as savages who stood in the way of westward expansion.

And our country has no idea what to do with that.

Last year, about this time, the United States was in the midst of a national dialogue regarding the Confederate Flag. It was being called out as the symbol of racism and bigotry that it is. And on June 27, 2015, the issue came to a head when Bree Newsome climbed the 30-foot flagpole and took down the Confederate Flag that flew over the South Carolina State Capitol. She was immediately arrested, but hailed on social media as a national hero. Funds were collected to pay her legal fees. National news organizations clamored for her interview. And on July 9th, the South Carolina state legislators passed a bill to remove the Confederate flag from flying over their capitol.

I watched these events with particular interest. It was good that our nation was having this dialogue and grappling with our racist past. It was good that public opinion was turning and there was some agreement that the Confederate Flag, while undeniably a part of US history, was not an acceptable symbol for our nation or our states to use.

But, as a Native man, I was both amused and disappointed, as right in the middle of these historic events our entire country took the day off, cranked up their barbecue grills, gathered with family and friends, and celebrated another symbol of racism and bigotry from our colonial past.

The Declaration of Independence.

For the past 200 years, the United States has struggled with its history of slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregation, sexism, internment camps, immigration reform, and mass incarceration. And while we still have a long way to go, we have made some progress. Our first African American President is completing his second term in office. A female candidate for President is now the presumptive nominee of a major political party. The Confederate flag is no longer being flown over the South Carolina state capitol.

But there is one part of our history that we have no idea what to do with.

Our colonialism.

Statue near US Capitol in Washington, DC“To the memory of Christopher ColumbusWhose high faith and indomitable couragegave to mankind a New World.”

The United States of America is a colonial nation. The “new world” was not discovered by Europeans in 1492. This continent had been inhabited by millions of people for centuries, even millennia. And you cannot discover lands that are already occupied. That action is better known as conquering, stealing or colonizing. The fact that history books refer to what Columbus did as discovery reveals our racial bias. The ‘manifest destiny’ of the United States of America was achieved through a violent history of systematic ethnic cleansing (Indian Removal Act of 1830, Trail of Tears, the Long Walk, massacre at Sand Creek, Indian Boarding schools the massacre at Wounded Knee, etc., etc., etc.). The notion that America was discovered, is a racist colonial concept that assumes the dehumanization of indigenous peoples.

And the Declaration of Independence both codifies that racial bias and justifies the violent history that resulted.

Photo of Mark Charles by Kris J Eden

But as the nation has grown more diverse and somewhat more tolerant, instead of dealing with our racist foundations, our country just stopped teaching its history or reading its founding documents in their entirety. In the past 5 years, I have traveled the country and spoken to thousands of people about the Doctrine of Discovery and its dehumanizing influence on the foundations of our nations, including the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and the United States Supreme Court. Over these years, I have been told by an embarrassingly large percentage of US citizens that they had no idea the Declaration of Independence referred to natives as “savages.”

It is this ignorance that allowed the hypocritical events of 2015 to take place. At the end of June and in early July, we celebrated the removal of the Confederate Flag because of the racism and bigotry it represented. But in the middle of those events, we paused and held a national party, complete with parades, concerts, and fireworks as we commemorated our violent colonial past and the dehumanizing Declaration of Independence that justified it.

Americans love the Fourth of July. It celebrates one of the documents that we, and even much of the globe, believe makes our nation exceptional. The Declaration of Independence has been lauded by historic figures and global icons such as Fredrick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, and Pope Francis as a foundation of equality and human rights.

But as a Native man I would have encouraged each of them, as well as every citizen of our country and the rest of the world, to please, read the entire document. It’s not what you think.

Mark Charles (Navajo) serves as the Washington DC correspondent for Native News Online and is the author of the popular blog“Reflections from the Hogan.” His writings are regularly published by Native News Online in a column titled “A Native Perspective” which addresses news directly affecting Indian Country as well as offering a Native perspective on national and global news stories. Mark is active on Facebook,Twitter,YouTube andInstagramunder the username:wirelesshoga

About The Author

This is a great essay, very educational and informative.
The kind of thinking documented in writing in the Declaration of Independence lays the foundation for the path of destruction the would follow to this day and into the future. Our whole societal structure is warped.

Mona4 years ago

What outcomes do you hope to achieve with this? I would argue and your own words reflect that your data supports, that the vast majority of Americans DO NOT celebrate a document, as you try to assert, they celebrate the birth of our country.

Richard Smith4 years ago

Mona- The birth of “our country”. Your words show what you feel. “Our Country” was birthed millennia ago by the Creator. You really mean “our nation”, and by that you mean THEIR nation, the white peoples’ nation, which did not include Indian Americans, or Mexican Americans, or Spanish Americans, or French Americans, or Black Americans who were slaves, or even those other Anglo Americans who did not own property or were indentured servants. An excellent book you might pick up is: “Columbus In The New Americas”, by William Least Heat Moon, for an in depth view of the mindset of the ‘discoverers’ of America, a mindset that was appropriated in whole by the colonists who followed and eventually birthed this nation. but they DID NOT birth this country, much less discover it. Celebrate all you want, if you must, but at least celebrate the whole truth, not just the parts that make you feel good.

Richard Smith4 years ago

And P.S.- as noted in another Native News Online: The bulk of fire works set off on the 4th of July are made in China; makes it a real American celebration, right?

Kyla J4 years ago

I definitely see, and agree with your points. I also suspect that the happy and seriously undereducated majority, interested mostly in a beer and a burger, believe they’re actually celebrating the successful end of the war more than the document that started it. (As my favorite history teacher said. “Declaring their independence was all well and good, but if Britain had kicked our butts, July 4 would have been just another tea-sipping day.”. Please keep writing – education is the only thing that can improve our future. Thanks.

Horuss4 years ago

This is a kind of simplistic but popular read of both the history of the time and the meaning and history of the declaration itself. It is a far more complicated matter. Anyone who presents black and white clarity with respect to most historical events is off the mark and this essay is no exception. It isn’t that many, if not most of the points are not true in some form or fashion, but the interpretation and emphasis is merely the personal opinion and interpretation of the author posing as authoritative fact. Volumes have been written on this subject that are far greater value than this thumbnail pop historical view. It is not without value but it is more an expression of a view with an agenda which is the author’s right than it is an accurate impression of the complicated and nuanced reality of that day and age socially, politically and otherwise. What can be said accurately is that from the very beginning of colonization to the time of the declaration and into the present, this land has been one of fundamental contradction between the oft repeated goals and ideals of equality, liberty, and justice for all and the often ugly reality of the way Americans live. Our history has been and continues to be a struggle between moving toward those ideals and resisting it, between admitting our egregious past sins, crimes and violations of human rights and facting them and forging and renewing our consensus to continue to make progress toward our professed ideals.

I’m not sure you know your history. The fact that “volumes have been written on the subject” does not make what happened the right thing that was done. Europeans invaded this land we call “America”, and set up their own nation–not a new country. The country was already here with people already living on the land. In our travels throughout Indian Country, have never met any “Indian savages”, nor do we believe that their ancestors were savages. In skirmishes with Europeans, they were protecting land in which they lived & were being forced to leave and move onto designated “reservations”. We cannot change history nor change what my European ancestors did against the Indians, but we should educate people by exposing the facts of what really took place. Let us start with renaming “Columbus Day”. Columbus did not “discover America”. He landed on the shores of a country that already had people on it. Why should he be treated like a hero. History shows him to be anything but a hero, yet our government ignorantly continues to have a national holiday in his honor.

Richard Smith4 years ago

Horuss- Complicated. Why is it that apologists for whatever and whoever ALWAYS say it’s more complicated than our simplistic minds can fathom? Even a court of law, where “complicated” matters are sorted out, reduction of the absurd and irrelevant is a defacto given? It is not “complicated”. Can there be mitigating circumstances? Yes: the Indians fought back. Obviously enraging the writers of the document to bare their souls in print. We have in historical evidence, letters , notes, written 1st hand accounts of the constitutional conventions, and correspondence of the founding fathers which plainly reveal their thoughts, intentions, arguments and, compromises. The phrase “merciless Indian Savages” is direct and to the point: no compromise here, no 2nd thoughts. Men are complicated, yes. but their motives are as clear as a mountain water stream when revealed by their actions: written words are actions. And where does personal opinion matter, much less apply to the written words in that document, that boldly and unequivocally state “the merciless Indian Savages” when deciphering their intent? if someone calls you a scumbag, do you not instantly see there intent to you? Are you blind?

Discrimination is going away unfortunately it is a slow progress. And it takes diligence on both sides. People are beginning to understand that the writings of our fore fathers were meant to gain and keep power over others. The biggest wall is the fear of no longer having that power, retaliation for being suppressors, and not having faith in ones own decision making ability without a basis in which all will follow. The biggest strides come from when those in perceived power push for the actual equality of all people as equal and create an environment for success.

Also not said but true was the Founding Fathers “Great Compromise” that African black slaves were deemed to be 3/5 of a person.

Robyn Kelley4 years ago

Excellent article!! And I wholeheartedly agree!!

Jane4 years ago

Savages are defined as primitive and uncivilized people. The Indians were not referred to as “animals”. There is, most likely, a reason for that – the Founding Fathers thought of them as humans, as men.

Bah Bii Daash4 years ago

but not created equal!

Charmaine Bugado4 years ago

“Most likely a reason”…may I suggest that you read some of the US laws pertaining to native American people? That may open your eyes to what the founding fathers thought of them and dare I say the Hawaiian Islands peoples. Look up political cartoons about Hawaii and tell me what our queen is in them? Your line of thinking excuses their wrongful ways.

Kat4 years ago

It really is much more complicated than that. Define savage- why was that word used? The N. American continent was already colonized by EMPIRES for hundreds of years before the BRITISH COLONIES DECLARED INDEPENDENCE FROM IMPERIAL RULE. Natives Americans fought on both sides of the revolutionary war. The land the new country (US) gained had been declared by Britain, then we bought the Louisiana purchase from….FRANCE. and the western portion of the area was Spanish empire. When the Spanish empire left we had war with mexico. Indian history is bound with western powers LONG before the events that formed the US. It is wildly innacurrate to pretend that conflict with the Indians or westernization etc. started with the revolutionary war, or that the expansion of the US was just European colonists against fighting against all Indians to kill them and take their land.

Donna Maxey4 years ago

I would like to thank you Mr. Charles for such an informative article. And thank the Native News Online for printing this , I just wish there was a way to get this out to more people. But this is a wonderful start. Hope you keep up the good works your doing, stay strong and again Thank You.

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